When Justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement from the Supreme Court in April 2010, the news was accompanied by the inevitable counting of votes on the Supreme Court. The conventional wisdom was that Stevens's retirement meant the departure of the most senior liberal Justice from the Court and that his successor would not substantially change the political orientation of the conservative Court led by Chief Justice John Roberts. The focus on the political implications of Stevens's retirement obscured a significant aspect of his retirement: the loss of the Supreme Court's preeminent common law lawyer.